Anti-NDAA Activism Sweeps America in 2013

Americans are standing up to claim and defend their birthright of liberty and democracy: the tide has begun to turn against the detention provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act .

Passed near-unanimously by Congress and furtively signed by the President in the last hours of 2011, The 2012 NDAA declares the United States a battlefield in the war on terror subject to a Law of War newly understood to supersede the U. S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights – a battlefield on which any person may be detained without charge or trial on the mere accusation either of undefined “support” for terror or commission of a “belligerent act”, and held until the end of the war on terror – until the final defeat of an enemy that is not a country or even an organization, but a tactic, a biochemical response.

No more craven concession to the emotion of terror could have been made, in the name of the American nation, by its supposed representatives. No clearer indication could have been given to the American people that their Republic, unless swiftly bolstered by a surge of passionate citizen reinvolvement and active personal rededication, was on the verge of gently collapsing into an irreversible and, it seemed, barely-remarked-upon tyranny.

America is responding. Across the nation we have begun to recognize the crisis and our duties in the face of it; and to organize ourselves to take back, indeed to reestablish, the American republic in line with our Constitution and our traditions of liberty. One such organization is People Against the NDAA (“PANDA”): which invites you to join on the forefront of the battle to take back the governance of America for its people, state by state, city by city and town by town.

Established in the first month of 2012 and the new national dispensation, PANDA has grown in its two years of life through town-level and then statewide campaigns to raise awareness of the issue and the need for strong legislation – not fine-sounding placebo bills – that actively, locally blocks the kidnapping of U.S. residents by a Federal government with whose abolition of the right to a trial local communities and their law enforcement representatives refuse to agree. It has made waves and local headlines, building broad antipartisan coalitions for liberty, uniting Tea Parties and Green Parties, Oathkeepers and Occupiers, expanded into over thirty state teams.

Now, we settle in for the start of the fight. A wave of city and town council victories have heralded the start of our Take Back the Town Campaign, already beginning to rock the nation.

It started in Albany, New York: the capital of the “Stop and Frisk” State, the militarized security State: the Empire State. On October 7, Albany’s “Common Council” unanimously passed Resolution 80.92.13, making it the first city in America actively to prohibit indefinite military detention under the NDAA, to declare itself not a battlefield, its citizens and other residents free of “disposition under the law of war”, its law enforcement officers bound to uphold the rights of those people in the face of any opposition.

Two days later came Oxford, Massachusetts:

“…it is unconstitutional, and therefore unlawful for any person to:

a. arrest or capture any person in Oxford, or citizen of Oxford, within the United States, with the intent of “detention under the law of war,” or

b. actually subject a person in Oxford, to “disposition under the law of war,” or

c. subject any person to targeted killing in Oxford, or citizen of Oxford, within the United States;…”

In lieu of a city council Oxford passes such legislation at “Town Meetings” where the citizens vote. A long campaign succeeded in putting the “Restoring Constitutional Governance Resolution” before the people, and when it did, Oxford residents did what most elected officials lack the courage to do, and voted 95% in favor of upholding the Constitution in their town.

Two weeks later, it was Webster, Massachusetts’ turn, passing legislation that, unlike decoy “Liberty Preservation Acts” introduced in states from Virginia to California, stood up to actually prohibit any person, in whatever position of authority from utilizing the powers of the “law of war” to declare themselves above the founding laws of the United States with regard to their fellows’ right to liberty and a trial.

In the weeks following these victories and the official declaration of the Take Back the Town Campaign, momentum across the country has only built.

The Siskiyou Daily out of Yreka, CA reported their County Board’s reaction to our briefing on the NDAA: "’What they've done is they've declared a limited martial law and suspended the First Amendment and other amendments,’ said Supervisor Marcia Armstrong. … [Supervisor Ed Valenzuela] added he would need to study and revisit where his legislatures and constituents weighed in on the issue.”

Days later it was the press in Santa Cruz, CA reporting on the next phase of their city’s legislative battle against NDAA, going beyond symbolic bills to add enforcement through elements of PANDA’s own Restoring Constitutional Governance Resolutions.

In Eugene Oregon we’ve put county commissioners on record committing to action, with conservative Republican Fay Stewart noting: “We’re trying to encourage the state and the federal government to make some changes,” and liberal Democrat Pete Sorenson noting “I’ve got emails from former law enforcement saying they don’t want this.”

And more victories are imminent in Liberty State Massachusetts. Across the country over 150 activists in over 125 cities have already committed to taking back their towns. Their number can be expected to increase exponentially as their work brings awareness of the campaign and its power to concerned, committed, honorable people across the United States.

That’s where our part of the fight is now, and it’s all with your support, whether you have chosen to #takeback your town, or to donate, or to offer your dedication, imagination and patriotism by helping to stop the NDAA in any number of other ways. Liberty isn’t given to us – it is upheld by liberty-loving people like you – we salute you, and we thank you, and we look forward to hearing of your next steps, to sharing in the burdens of your work and the celebration of your victories.

The TakeBack movement is restoring law and liberty to America. We might have stopped us but the secret is they can’t. Your town is not a battlefield and if you know it too, then we’re going to win this fight.